Tulane University will welcome the incoming freshmen class of 2018 on Friday. This year’s class contains more than 1,600 students, most of whom will make their way around campus with giant boxes and teary-eyed parents in tow on move-in day.

These students were among the 26 to 27 percent of all applicants to be accepted for this year’s class. Faye Tydlaska, director of admissions and assistant vice president for enrollment management, said Tulane purposefully selected these students based on their interest in Tulane.

“We have been … looking at students and their overall fit for Tulane and their desire to attend Tulane,” Tydlaska said.

Between 57 and 58 percent of the incoming freshman graduated from their high schools in the top 10 percent of their class.

Senior Associate Director of Admissions Jeff Schiffman said on his Tulane admission’s blog that this incoming class has the right fit for Tulane and is also academically gifted.

The post stated that the average two-section SAT score for the class of 2018 is 1344, which is the highest average score Tulane has ever seen.

The incoming class represents 46 states and 18 different countries, ranging from as close as Canada to as far as South Korea and New Zealand.

Large groups of students are matriculating with many of their high school classmates, as Schiffman explained in a later part of the same post. Thirteen students come from both Highland Park High School in Illinois and Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans.

The top five states represented in the class of 2018 are New York, Louisiana, California, New Jersey and Illinois, all of which have more than 100 students. Louisiana has 201 students in the class of 2018, an increase compared to the class of 2017. Earl Retif, vice president of enrollment management and university registrar, said the admissions office makes an effort to attract home state students.

“We always make a great effort to try and get Louisiana students,” Retif said. “The difference is it’s not a very large state. The demographics are down of the college-aged population. It tends to not be a wealthy state.”

Retif said Tulane tends to draw from both coasts and the Midwest region.  Along with the new class of 2018, Tulane welcomes new president Michael Fitts, a Philadelphia native. He will give the annual presidential convocation speech to the incoming students Saturday. Fitts said his biggest piece of advice for the students is to explore every opportunity at Tulane.

“[Students need to] take advantage of the thousands of opportunities here,” Fitts said. “There’s no school like Tulane in the United States. The only problem is if [students] don’t take advantage of it.”

Fitts said he plans on leading the way for this group of students and that he encourages all students, not just the incoming class of 2018, to take full advantage of the offerings.

“You are a kid in a candy shop, and you’ve got to make sure you go into the candy shop and not stay outside,” Fitts said.